Two Army National Guard Soldiers Plead Guilty in Connection with Bribery and Fraud Schemes to Defraud the U.s. Army National Guard Bureau

Two U.S. Army National Guard soldiers pleaded guilty for their roles
in bribery and fraud schemes that caused a total of at least $70,000 in
losses to the U.S. Army National Guard Bureau.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the
Southern District of Texas made the announcement.

Specialist Edia Antoine, 28, and former Staff Sergeant Ernest Millien,
49, both of Houston, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and
one count of bribery.
The cases against both defendants arise from an investigation
involving allegations that former and current military recruiters and
U.S. soldiers in the San Antonio and Houston areas engaged in a
wide-ranging corruption scheme to illegally obtain fraudulent recruiting
bonuses.
To date, the investigation has led to charges against 25 individuals, 19 of whom have pleaded guilty.

According to court documents filed in both cases, in approximately
September 2005, the National Guard Bureau entered into a contract with
Document and Packaging Broker Inc. (Docupak) to administer the Guard
Recruiting Assistance Program (G-RAP).
The G-RAP was a recruiting program that offered monetary
incentives to soldiers of the Army National Guard who referred others to
join the Army National Guard.
Through this program, a participating soldier could receive up
to $3,000 in bonus payments for referring another individual to join.
Based on certain milestones achieved by the referred soldier, a
participating soldier would receive payment through direct deposit into
the participating soldier’s designated bank account.
To participate in the program, soldiers were required to create online recruiting assistant accounts.

Antoine and Millien both admitted they paid Army National Guard
recruiters for the names and Social Security numbers of potential Army
National Guard soldiers.
They used the personal identifying information for these
potential soldiers to claim that they were responsible for referring
these potential soldiers to join the Army National Guard, when in fact
they had not referred them.
As a result of these fraudulent representations, Antoine and
Millien collected approximately $17,000 and at least $12,500 in
fraudulent bonuses, respectively.

The charge of bribery carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison
and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss.
The charge of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five
years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary
gain or loss.

Antoine and Millien are scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District
Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas on June 24,
2014.

These cases are being investigated by Special Agents from the San
Antonio Fraud Resident Agency of Army Criminal Investigation Command’s
Major Procurement Fraud Unit.
The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Sean F.
Mulryne, Mark J. Cipolletti and Heidi Boutros Gesch of the Criminal
Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney John
Pearson of the Southern District of Texas.